What is Skepticism?
Are you someone who is frequently skeptical of the person that you’re dating or skeptical of your partner’s intentions? Today I want to teach you a little bit about skepticism. Skepticism is essentially having a negative perception or some pessimistic thoughts. If you’re skeptical of your partner, you’re really suspicious that they don’t actually have positive intentions instead of giving them benefit of the doubt. There are pros and cons with skepticism.
Pros:
On the plus side, skepticism can be a healthy tool that will assist you in thinking critically and evaluating your relationship a little more objectively. Skepticism often exists on the left side of the brain where our emotional thinking exists on the right side of the brain. We make the best decisions when we incorporate the two. If you’re someone who tends to make very impulsive emotional decisions, being a little more skeptical about your relationships can really become a healthy protective practice for you. However, if that’s the case you should really slow down and ask yourself, “Are there valid reasons why I’m feeling skeptical about my partner?” “Have they done things that have caused me to lose trust in them?” If so, those are really issues that you are going to want to pay attention to.
Cons:
On the con side, skepticism is often something that’s at play when one partner has become emotionally unavailable to the other. They have a lot of skeptical thoughts about their partner like, “They don’t actually mean that positive thing that they said about me” or “My partner is not actually going to show up for me in the way that they promised they would.” Each of those skeptical, negative thoughts about their partner is like a brick that forms this brick wall keeping them emotionally distant and their partner on the other side. So if you’re someone who tends to be overly critical/overly skeptical in relationships, that is something that you’re going to want to look at. Nobody likes feeling shut out; it’s pretty cold and lonely on the other side of that brick wall from you. You may be someone who needs to decide whether or not you’re willing to dismantle that brick wall in the interest of letting someone in and maintaining a closer, more harmonious relationship. In my 15 years of experience, most of the skeptical perceptions that we have about our partners turn out to be distortions, and completely untrue once we explore them. Try not to allow your skepticism to have too much power in your relationships.